Pregnancy Sleeplessness

-As soon as I got pregnant I have been observing that I am not able to get enough sleep. The most frustrating thing has been the inability to return back to sleep if disturbed. Is it normal?-

Thankfully, the answer is yes! During the course of pregnancy, it’s difficult to get sleep. Let’s see as to why it happens.

What are the most common causes of insomnia or sleeplessness during pregnancy?

1.Empty the bladder- Yes, a frequent cause of less or no sleep during pregnancy is the feeling of emptying the bladder. This happens because your kidneys are working overtime thereby supplying an extra amount of blood to the body due to the fetus development. When you lie down to sleep, some blood is retained and needs to be filtered by the kidneys, forcing your kidneys to work harder and make you feel uncomfortable. A tendency of frequent urination is felt during pregnancy day and night because of the mentioned activity and is the most common cause of sleeplessness

2.Being uncomfortable- Another reason for not getting enough sleep during pregnancy is being uncomfortable. As the baby grows, kicks and the heartbeat sounds so loud that you feel it’s sound would cause problems to the neighbors by waking them up (In reality, blood flows to the baby), you would find sleeping uncomfortable. In order to get sleep, you would need to try new positions. Your body temperature might be too hot or too cold. You could have cramps and legs sore making you feel uncomfortable to no end. Thus, being uncomfortable due to various cues also causes insomnia during pregnancy

3.Dreams and fantasy- Some of the expecting mothers might experience various situations like feeling an extra dose of excitement, fear of delivery, and these could destroy the efforts to get comfortable and eventually sleep. Pregnant woman can also experience vivid dreams of vivid nature to make them uncomfortable due to progesterone hormones

4.Heartburn and indigestion- Sometimes later during the tenure of pregnancy, heartburn and indigestion can trigger some unpleasant situations and make you feel insomniac. Heartburn could be due to a spicy diet and could be easily controlled. Indigestion occurs because of changes in the stomach pattern due to the baby. Thus, even these situations can disturb the sleeping pattern

How to overcome these situations to get proper sleep?

By adhering to some simple tips, you could just help yourself get back to the regime of proper sleep. If you are not getting sleep at all, stop staring at the clock that irritates you by making you realize that it’s late. Another way to get sleep would be stop sleeping during the day time.

You could also take a hot bath, a hot cup of milk and listen to some soft music to make you relax so that you can sleep. Try to eat less spicy food so that you are comfortable. Read a book that you don’t like and it shall also help you. Keep the atmosphere of bedroom relaxing by keeping it warm or cool, dark and the bed cozy. Also keep the tensions away.